A Change is Gonna Come
by rw4life
Summary: DAIR, but very Chair/Derena-centric. Blair and Dan reflect on their significant others and the choices that they've made. (I'm not too good at summaries, but give it a read!)
1. Chapter 1

AN/ So this is just me exploring Dair's future despite their respective marriages to Chuck and Serena. It's not super fluffy, just kind of hopeful and there's a possibility of me continuing it, though I'm not sure I have it in my schedule right now. In any case, enjoy and review! Thanks!

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It was a constant mantra playing in her head, _I'm happily married. This was my destiny. This was the only perfect future for me._ But when she slept, she dreamt of the Sunshine theater, Breakfast at Tiffany's...a simple purely happy love, not a passionate dark romance.

But it had always been Chuck and Blair. And now, Chuck and Blair and Henry.

Things did change upon the arrival of their son. Chuck was an excellent father, she worried during the first few months...it was unplanned, and he'd never much expressed an interest in being a dad, but he was wonderful and nothing like his own father.

Though it was hard to play any interesting sex games with the arrival of a crying colicky baby.

They eventually lost their usual Chuck and Blair flame. The passionate, intense love, full of danger, schemes and games fizzled out. They were comfortable, they kept busy, and their shared love of Henry kept them going.

Blair was certainly content, she could not say she was unhappy, but when she saw the love her mother and Cyrus shared she knew that's not what she had with Chuck. They were happy and comfortable, but not blissfully in love. Not anymore.

But she was happy, she was fulfilling her destiny. And besides, who would have her now?

_You'll still have me._

–

For once things had been going incredibly well for him and Serena. It seemed to finally be the perfect time for their relationship to blossom. Now, without Gossip Girl, with everything out in the open they had nothing to hide and they were happier than ever.

She was his first love, first time, first...everything. She still had that adorable full body laugh, the tendency to throw back her hair, scrunch up her nose as she made a silly face. Her energy was contagious and she inspired so many new stories from him.

The reviews for his more recent stories had accused him of going back to some of his earlier work, regressing. But he was happy, he was simply returning to his roots, returning to the happiest times in his life.

Knowing that in about a week he would be waiting for Serena to walk down the stairs and say 'I do' filled him with eager anticipation.

He still sometimes missed being able to suggest an art exhibit on a whim and have his partner hop eagerly on board, or vehemently decry his taste. Nowadays he got a careless shrug, sometimes in agreement and other times casually blowing him off.

He did still enjoy a solitary stroll through the Met on occasion. He even sometimes visited the Degas paintings, there was something beautiful about the delicate ballerinas. The art of fashion.

–

_Chuck and Blair go to the movies. Chuck and Blair holding hands._

It wasn't quite so unusual nowadays. A simple dinner and movie while Dorota watched Henry and then they came home, tucked him in and went to bed. But what were they without that initial spark?

There seemed to be nothing to fall back on. Without their scheming, their drama, their passion...what did they have? So yes, Chuck and Blair held hands, went to the movies, but now they really weren't young Chuck and Blair. They understood each other's passions and hard work, their manipulation of others to get ahead, they shared similar backgrounds, but that wasn't a love to grow old with.

Blair still loved him, but the more she thought about their future together, the less she thought of their fun sex games and schemes. She began to think more of the strained dinners where they discussed business ventures, where Chuck got up halfway through to take a call, where Blair worried about her designs arriving in time for the next merch meeting. The silence was never comforting, it was suffocating, strained.

Eventually they separated. Quietly, discreetly. Blair could've maybe even tolerated the lack of spark if not for the random women Chuck would occasionally bring home. She didn't mind too much, only she didn't want her son to accidentally run into the young women on their way out and ask questions. So Chuck moved back into his penthouse at the Empire and Henry knew that both of his parents still loved him very much. They didn't hesitate to remind him on a constant basis.

She didn't know how free she would feel, how stifled she had felt with him until he was gone. But the loneliness was there too.

–

They lasted about a year into their marriage before the problems began to arise.

There was only so long that the novelty of marriage, of Serena being his first everything began to wear off. Five years of dating and one year of marriage seemed to be as far as they could manage. Their parents tried to convince them to stay together, see how it worked out for them. But despite the many similarities, Serena and Dan were not Lily and Rufus.

He ran out of inspiration, she didn't laugh quite as much as she once did. They began to spend longer and longer amounts of time apart, and found that they didn't mind the distance too much. Serena still believed in a true love, a deep, passionate, wholehearted love. She knew that wasn't what she had with Dan anymore. He was safe, he was her first real love and she would always love him, but she never felt any loss being away from him.

He finally wrote another hit when Blair got her divorce. When the reviews came pouring in Serena pulled him away from the release party and they hugged goodbye. She'd had the divorce papers signed for weeks now.

–

She heard about their divorce when Serena called her from sunny L.A. They chatted the way they always had and Serena seemed a bit disappointed by her failed marriage but not the level of upset Blair had expected. That night she went over to the Brooklyn loft she hadn't gone to in years.

She knocked, the door slid open and Humphrey smiled at her as he always had, after all of these years.

She held up the bottle of her best Merlot and two wine glasses and he stepped aside to let her in.

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AN/ Yeah, so that's it! I mean, come on, we know none of them will just be married the once...they don't have many good examples of that in their lives! :P Let me know what you thought below, and if you think I should continue or if it's fine where it ended!


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So I just realised that I had in fact written a follow up chapter to this story and just came across it in my files! Haven't really read over it so it might be a little rough, but I'm posting anyways! Enjoy and thanks for your reviews!**

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Things weren't immediately better after that. They watched Sunset Boulevard that night before Blair excused herself and returned home. They didn't see each other at all in the following weeks.

Dan finally unpacked all of his boxes back into his Brooklyn loft and started writing again. It took many sleepless nights and long walks along the East River before any inspiration struck him again. The real kick in his writing happened when Serena finally called him after weeks of not speaking. They chatted amicably and agreed that not talking was stupid, they were important parts of each others lives and that would never change. It was a sudden weight off of his shoulders to know that not everything had to change, that they could both be happy apart.

Blair got used to the life of a recent divorcee with a child. Chuck agreed to see Henry every other weekend seeing as how he was usually so busy anyway. She spent these weekends visiting art galleries, curled up in her bed with a book or making last minute adjustments to her newest line. She found that she didn't miss Chuck the way she thought she would. She was missing something though.

It wasn't till about a month later that she ran into Dan again. There was an interesting art event at the Park Avenue Armory and she should've guessed that he'd be there on opening night, his father did have connections to the art world after all. But as it turned out, he was invited on his own merit, seemed that being a new literary genius had its perks. They wound up sitting silently next to one another on one of the swings, they swung higher and higher, watching the white curtains billow in front of them. When they finally got off the swing she still felt as though she was up in the air, soaring. They lay down underneath the billowing curtain and she didn't even complain about her clothes getting mussed from laying on a floor that countless others had walked on.

It was Dan that finally started a conversation. He asked about Henry, about her new line about Jenny and how she raved about working with her. Blair asked about the buzz behind his newest book and eventually they went back to their old jokes about their literary taste, their opinions about the art they were currently viewing. After hours of just lying on the floor laughing and talking like the old friends they were Dan got up and held his hand out to her. He asked her out for dinner but she had made plans with Eleanor. She kissed him on the cheek goodbye and walked away.

That night she called him and they watched Roman Holiday together.

Their friendship progressed in the way it had before. Sure it was years later, but they still coincidentally ran into one another at a museum, or theater. Slowly the chance meetings became planned. Mostly they were on weekends that Blair was alone and lonely, but now and again Henry would come along. His rambunctious little kid mind got bored quickly, so they'd end up eating out somewhere or once Dan even took them to the Children's Zoo.

Even without Gossip Girl, word travelled quickly. The week following their excursion together, Blair got an angry drunken phone call from her ex husband. She understood where the anger came from to an extent, but Dan was her friend and he was good for Henry so she didn't give a shit that Chuck may not have approved. She told him as much over the phone and soon after he arrived at their home and confronted her. They had amazing angry sex and for a moment things seemed to have resumed their usual route. Chuck came over for dinners, sometimes went out on museum excursions but it eventually turned back into much of the same. Blair couldn't let this cycle happen again, she had Henry to think about now. So they talked and he left for the Empire permanently. Serena wasn't around anymore, so this time Blair cried to Dan about her failed marriage, finally taking the time to grieve her lost epic love.

They continued to see one another as friends. Blair ignored news of Chuck's most recent conquests and eventually she stopped caring all together. She found herself finally happy and content with her work, with Henry, with Dan. Chuck got engaged to some young socialite and Blair was happy for him. Serena married an up and coming Hollywood director and Dan flew out to attend the wedding.

It took them two years before they decided to get married. It took them that long to realize that they had been dating in the first place. During the first year of their dates, the two continued to pretend they were only friends hanging out. During the second year they slept together every now and then, but they were just casual hookups. It took them two years to realize that they hadn't been seeing anyone else and that neither of them wanted to be dating anyone else. So one night as Dan polished up his most recent novel and Blair put together a task list for the following day at the office, they decided it was about time they married.

Blair finally wore her dream gown, in her dream church, surrounded by the people she most loved in the world. She didn't imagine that her son would be the ring-bearer, that she'd be so happy to see Chuck in the pews with his new bride, that Jenny would be one of her bridesmaids. Her husband was most definitely not the perfect man that she'd imagined. But she wouldn't have it any other way.

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**Also this is the art event they went to:armoryonpark {.} org /photo_gallery/slideshow/ann_hamilton**


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